Sweetbread

Sweetbreads is the name of a dish made of the thymus gland or pancreas of a young animal, usually a lamb or calf. The two organs have very different biological functions, but look fairly similar and so are considered, for the purpose of cooking, to be comparable. Thymus sweetbreads are slightly longer and more irregular, with pancreas sweetbreads being larger and more rounded. In modern Western cooking, thymus sweetbreads are more common.Courtine, Robert J (Compiler) (1998, revised ed 2003). The Concise Larousse Gastronomique (Larousse). London: Hamlyn, 1252. ISBN 0-600-60863-8. 

Sweetbread is also the name of a bread made in the Caribbean mostly in Trinidad and it is made with coconut and sprinkled with sugar. Jamaicans have a similar bread called totoe, which differs slightly in taste and texture.

The term can also refer to the sweetening of bread with honey or sugar.

Preparation

Sweetbreads, like many other offal, should be soaked in water for at least five hours to remove blood, the common method being to soak in several changes of salted cold water. They should then be placed in a saucepan of fresh cold salted water and slowly heated. At the first sign of boiling, they should be removed and drained, and refreshed under cold running water. After, they should be drained and wiped dry. This should remove the unpleasantly flavoured fat, veins and connective tissues. Most often this is followed by pressing, or applying weight on the poached offal. Areas of dark coloration, which can often carry an unpleasant iron flavor owing to blood, should be trimmed or pulled away. To serve, they can be finished with any cooking technique: often seared, fried, braised or grilled.

Seared, grilled or fried, the preferred temperature is medium well, as the sweetbreads remain squishy when undercooked and unpleasantly granular when overdone. The internal color should be slightly pink. The mouthfeel can be described as "spongy" but is surprisingly approachable. They are very fatty (and very high in cholesterol, comparable with shrimp) and have a slightly gamey flavor, reminiscent of raw eggs that can be tamed with the addition of smoked pork, aromatic acids (as in a vinaigrette) or as below, carefully darkened (past brown) butter.

A popular French recipe ris de veau sautés involves calve\'s sweetbreads, which are first blanched with carrots, celery stalks, shallots, garlic, aromatic herbs, wine and vinegar, then taken out and dried before being dipped into wheat flour and sauteed in a pan with butter. Sauteed sweetbreads are served with beurre noir poured over them.

Ris de veau escalopés à l’Ancienne combines calves sweetbread with mushrooms, truffle and Madeira wine flavoured velouté sauce.

In other culinary traditions

In Argentina and Uruguay, sweetbreads (mollejas) are usually used for an asado. In northern Spain, they are cooked as a stew in an earthen casserole. They are also called mollejas in Mexico.

In Turkey, uykuluk (Turkish for sweetbread) is a popular dish to go with rakı. Lamb sweetbreads are favoured in Turkey. The preparation of the meat before cooking is very important as this is a delicate part of the animal. Common preparation consists blanching: boiling for a short time and then immersing in cold water. The thin layer of skin is peeled off, then the sweetbread is cooked either in a bit of butter or over the grill. Red pepper, oregano and salt are added to the meat after the first 5 minutes of cooking. Istanbul\'s Sütlüce quarter is well-known for its restaurants specialised in preparing sweetbreads.

References

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